KC Tidemand A SYSTEM TRANSFORMED at Trafo Kunsthall
24.august - 6.oktober 2019

​“En transformatorstasjon er et anlegg som transformerer spenning fra ett nivå til et annet. Et typisk anlegg består av kabler, strømtransformator, spenningstransformator, effektbrytere, samleskinner, lynavleder og kontrollrom.”
— Wikipedia

Like philosophy, art exceeds lived experience by creating an approach to chaotic virtuality.
—Tamsin Lorraine, Irigaray and Deleuze: Experiments in Visceral Philosophy






​Hva innebærer det å bruke maling til å representere virkeligheten?

​Platon uttalte i Staten, at all form for kunst skulle bannlyses. Med det mente han at virkeligheten, i sin sanne form, kun kan eksistere som en idé. For å beskrive dette bruker han den kjente metaforen om skyggene på huleveggen, den virkeligheten vi opplever er en skygge av den ideelle virkeligheten. Følger vi Platon sin filosofi kan man forstå et maleri som en tredjegrads imitasjon av virkeligheten, en skygge av skyggen – en svak etterligning av sannheten. Dette var bakgrunnen for at Platon ville/ønsket å bannlyse kunst.

​KC Tidemand tar utgangspunkt i denne tanken.

I stedet for å jobbe med en tredjegrads virkelighetsgjengivelse blir selve handlingen, eller maleprosessen, likestilt med maleriet. Selve malingen blir således ikke et medium for å imitere virkeligheten, men eksisterer i seg selv som en sannhet.

I skulpturen A Painters Totem følger kunstneren denne ideen ved å plassere malingsblokker av akryl opphøyet på sokler som totem. Resultatet er at skulpturene fremstår som hellige ovenfor mediet, et lag bestående av avleiringer av størknet maling – en feiring av farge og tekstur.
​
I likhet med disse skulpturene, henger tapetet SSHC-2, som et symbol på samfunnets feiring og tilbedelse av teknologi. Dette håndsydde tapetet består av metalltråder og plater som samtidig refererer til den urgamle teknologien å veve, akkurat som den refererer til virkeligheten bak teknologiens effektivisering, nemlig at det krever enormt mye manuelt arbeide å produsere.

​
I A Salon Transformed stiller Tidemand også et mer spesifikt spørsmål om muligheten for maleriet som et tredimensjonalt verk. Er installasjonen like viktig som selve emnet? Kunstneren binder det gamle galleriformatet sammen i salongstilen, der malerier henger vertikalt så vel som horisontalt; med galleriets historiske bakgrunn som en transformatorstasjon. Slik stiller Tidemand spørsmål om hvilken rolle maleriet spiller i en stadig mer digital verden, og gjenspeiler bygget og teknologiens historie i oljemaleriene.

Tidemands verk lever i skjæringspunktet mellom det menneskelige og det mekaniske. Inspirasjonen til kunsten ligger i hvordan vi som mennesker bruker teknologi for å skape kontroll i en kaotisk verden, for så å gi etter for kaos.

Med sin kunst forsøker Tidemand å visualisere det iboende paradokset i vårt forsøk på å oppnå en organisert virkelighet, og menneskets håp om at teknologi kan hjelpe oss å skape det ufeilbarlige. Et håp som alltid faller igjennom, nettopp fordi teknologiens røtter er i mennesket.


​KC Tidemand (f. 1988, Oslo) er utdannet ved School of Visual Arts i NYC (MA 2015) og Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NYC (BA 2011). Hun har tidligere hatt solo –og gruppeutstillinger: i Norge på QB Gallery i Oslo, og i USA blant annet på Space Heater Gallery, Re;art show, The Rabbithole, SVA Chelsea NYC og Tang Museum i Saratoga Springs. Hun har også stilt ut ved Holland Project i Reno, Nevada, Satellite Art Show i Miami, Vivid Space i San Diego, Gallery 14 Mapel at Morris Arts og Falcon Power Gallery i New Jersey. Tidemand er grunnlegger av Smooth Muscle Collective. Hun bor og jobber i New York.

www.trafokunsthall.no/loslashkke--brael… LINK TO TRAFO KUNSTHALL|

As far as my eyes can sea at Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall
19.06.21 - 26.09.21

Den siste festen 03.12 — 19.12.2020

Andrea Scholze Espen Gleditsch Kaare Ruud Christian Tunge Marthe Elise Stramrud Per Christian Brown Marianne Brekke Anne Guro Larsmon Morten Jensen Vågen KC Tidemand

Om utstillingen:

Galleriet flytter til nye lokaler.

Dette er vår siste utstilling i Tordenskiolds gate 5.

Det er pandemi.

Velkommen til den siste festen!

LINK TO QB GALLERY

Velvet Highway at The Holland Project Gallery
04.04.19 - 13.05.19

SMOOTH MUSCLE COLLECTIVE ON THE “VELVET HIGHWAY”

POSTED BY ARTS

Holland Project Gallery is thrilled to welcome Jacy Ceccarelli, Domonique Palladino, K.C. Tidemand and Sophie Parker, the founders of Smooth Muscle Collective. Coming from different parts of the country and world, they met while attending the School of Visual Art in NYC and shortly after graduating formed Smooth Muscle Collective. Respectfully, their work sheds light on the vulnerable and overlooked places in our psyche and culture. As a collective, they create a network of and for diverse bodies and visions. Speaking individually and as a collective they offer real talk about living creative lives, the transition from art school to the ‘real’ world, and the power of curating and taking matters into their own hands. Don’t miss their exhibition Velvet Highway, on view in the Main Gallery at Holland April 4th– May 3rd. Opening night with the artists is Thursday, April 4th from 6-9pm.

Jacy Ceccarelli & Dominique Palladino, Luminous Flux, 2018, performance


Marisa R. Malone: What inspired the name?

SMC: Smooth Muscle refers to the soft tissue in our bodies that is responsible for involuntary sensations and movements. It’s found in the skin, eyes, uterus, stomach, intestines, bladder and the circulatory, respiratory, urinary and reproductive systems. For us, Smooth Muscle represents a strength beyond our control, an uncalculated visceral reaction to something that stimulates our senses and regulates the way we receive pleasure. Art is like this. It’s that feeling you get before your mind has had the time to process what it is experiencing. That feeling is where the strength is and magic happens.

MRM: As curators what kind of work do you look for? What kind of art do you want to see more of in the world?

SMC: The key impulse for creating the collective was to show underrepresented artists that we knew or wanted to meet. It has never been about the work as much as it’s been about the artist. Everyone’s work deserves a seat at the table. When put in the right context, a piece of crumpled paper will have resonance. Our loyalty is with the maker.

It’s important to us that the work communicates with each other, that they enjoy being in the same room with each other. We’re motivated by a healthy balance of playfulness and austerity. In terms of the kind of art we’d like to see more of, basically it’s just more. We strive to not create conclusions about what is good or bad. Those are just pre-conditioned attitudes based on constructed external sources. We’d like to see inclusion, unbiased orientation, uncensorship, racial and gender equality inside of the white cubes.

MRM: Looking through each of your work I started thinking about curating as a feminist act and an act of reclaiming. I’m interested in your thoughts on this. What are some questions you ask yourself and/or each other that frame your personal work and the work organized under Smooth Muscle?

KC: I think our personal and collective questions blend together, we decided to make this collective because we understand and respect each other’s voices and opinions, especially because they are distinct. Our questions are usually varied and feed off of each other. Each show is unique and deserves new ideas and new questions. For this upcoming show at Holland Project we wanted to bring in Reno and the tropes associated with it and then put our own spin on it, bring our baggage along and put it all in the blender.

Dominique: I love that, it very much is an act of reclaiming. Reclaiming theoretical spaces that we create for our feminine voices to live. Otherwise we are performing the role of the compliant artist within the patriarchal infrastructure. The whole drive to start Smooth Muscle was when us three girls got together and said why not! Who is stopping us from carving our own path? I actually think [because] we are very strong minded/willed women that it’s not a process of question and answer. It is more an intuitive confidence in who we are and what we represent that we trust wholeheartedly as a connected stream of awareness. We’re all very grounded in who we are and know that about each other; this helps in trusting each other like we trust our own selves to make a decision.

MRM: How is Smooth Muscle helping to advance the voice and work of marginalized/diverse artists?

SMC: We like to be humble in how far we think our influence goes, but naturally we work with a lot of people from diverse backgrounds just by virtue of the art circles we are affiliated with. We are three people, from three different geographical places, so that helps drastically in knowing and finding artists from different communities and cultures. Discovering marginalized and diverse artists will always be a road we are traveling down, a process we are allowing to unravel itself as we meet more people and grow our network. The main goal in this moment is to keep finding locations that will let us exhibit work to provide space for marginalized/diverse to be seen!

MRM: What kind of conversations do you want Velvet Highway to start?

SMC: This show is about the subtle differentiations in space that give the illusion of boundaries. In the external and internal landscapes that we traverse, how much of our choices and experiences are dictated by the idea of the other. What does it look like when we erase the edges and embrace the limitlessness of experience and idea? What does it feel like to find comfort in the uncomfortable? Through the raw beauty of the desert landscape we try to break open our perceptions of self and other and propose reflective questions about our aliveness.

MRM: What has it been like to carve a space for yourselves in New York’s art scene?

SMC: It’s like anything else really, all you have to do is keep making work and that’s hard no matter where you are. Endurance is key. When times get rough — and your mind is convincing you that you don’t have what it takes, or it’s so much easier to do this other thing, or to move home, or to apply to that tech job that guarantees a paycheck every two weeks — you have to grit your teeth and trust your gut. I think it’s easy to feel like there is so much working against you, but all of it, literally all of it, is in your own head. Pulling yourself out of that space every day to get yourself to make something – ANYTHING – is an astronomical victory in your progress in getting better, cultivating a network and conjuring up a magnetic energy in your work. Eventually, when you’ve made sacrifices and dedicated yourself to this practice, things start to click. The universe aligns and you get traction. It’s like magic. But you have to do the work.

MRM: How has the transition from making art full time in school to making art for a living been for each of you? What has helped you all to be successful in this transition?

Sophie: I think the difference is that all of a sudden you have to find a way to make money off the thing you love. So, you’re in a constant battle between compromising yourself and following the thing that you’re passionate about. Which is part of the reason we formed smooth muscle, to keep that equation invigorating and personal.

KC: The transition was hard just in terms of recuperating after finishing the master’s degree. You have been through a rollercoaster of emotions and two years of hard work and constant dialogue on the work can be as confusing as it is enlightening. But honestly, it’s the desire and a need to make the work that gets you through. The focus becomes very precise and determined.

Dominique: Honestly? It was a bitch and a half. Like one of the hardest, but most rewarding things I’ve been through in my life. The transition for me has felt very long and emotionally arduous. While you’re in school you somehow convince yourself that you’re going to be the next Marilyn Minter or the art grandchild of Marina Abramovic. Then you graduate and it’s like you are kicked to the curb with a measly diploma and a loan payment. But, this is when the real magic happens. With consistency and perseverance, these are the valleys you pull yourself out of and the ingredients to an amazing recipe for success. I had to stop thinking so much and just do the thing I was dreaming of. Even still the highs are short lived; you just have to play a long game of proving to yourself that you can and you will. Then one day, you find yourself curating shows with your best friends at venues that are requesting your work! The universe just needs to see, hear and feel your one pointedness. Believing in my vision is what got me here eventually.

MRM: What are the goals and future for Smooth Muscle Collective?

SMC: To schedule regular doctor visits, drink enough water, call our loved ones and exercise regularly!! 😉 In all seriousness, we haven’t gotten there yet. Something that is very true to us, our name and our individual nature, is that we are stimulated by the unexpected; much like the way smooth muscle tissue works. We care deeply about our people and their people and wanting to create a web for us all to fall back on. A space in the great matrix where creatives can come together in thoughtful play, respectful love, and considerate empathy. As long as there are people in our lives, we’ll be looking to support them in the small ways we can. We are just a few friends that got together to manifest their desires instead of waiting for someone to do it for us. Maybe this can be an example to others out there that you can truly do whatever it is you want; just start with that you have.

LINK TO HOLLAND PROJECT

PINK 08.06 — 31.03.2017

Audun Alvestad (f, 1980) er utdannet fra Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen (2016). Utvalgte utstillinger er Kristin Hjellegjerde, London (2018, 2019), «Varme hende, kalde føtter» på Trøndelag Senter for Samtidskunst (2017), LNM, Oslo (2015) og Galleri Kant, København (2017). Med et fokus på det naive figurative maleriet, representerer Alvestad en ny generasjon unge malere. Han har de siste årene også utmerket seg med store romlige installasjoner som består av maleri, skulptur og objekter.

Vilde Løwenborg Blom (f, 1991) har Master i billedkunst ved Kunst- og designhøgskolen i Bergen (2017) og Bachelor i billedkunst fra Kunstakademiet i Tronheim (2015). Tidligere utstillinger er Dropsfabrikken, Trondheim (2018), Galleri Blunk, Trondheim (2018). Løwenborg Bloms kunst ligger mellom det søte og groteske og hun bruker ofte spiselige objekter som utgangspunkt. Løwenborg Blom ble tidligere i år fremmet i Kapital som en av de yngre norske lovende kunsttalentene å følge med på.

Sindre Braaten (f, 1988) har deltatt i flere gruppeutstillinger, blant annet Rod Bianco, Oslo (2016) og andre utstillinger i både Moss og Oslo. Nerven i Braatens malerier er det intuitive utrykket basert på former og farger med psykedeliske og humoristiske undertoner.

Marianne Brekke, (f.1965) er utdannet fra Vestlandetes Kunstakademi i Bergen (1996). Brekke har tidligere stilt ut på Bærum Kunsthall (2017), House of Foundation, Moss (2015), LNM (2010, 2005) samt stått for flere utsmykninger. Brekkes fokus ligger i farge, rom og form.

Pia Antonsen Rognes (f, 1986) har utdannelse fra Iceland Academy of the Arts,(MA, 2014) og National Academy of Arts i Bergen (BA, 2012). Utvalgte solo-utstillinger er Trøndelag Senter for Samtidskunst (2018), Format, Oslo (2019), Soft, Oslo (2016). Rognes tekstilskulpturer ligger et sted mellom det vakre og det groteske og gir assosiasjoner til det kroppslige, både inn- og utside.

KC Tidemand (f, 1988) har utdannelse fra School of Visual Arts, New York City, NY (MFA, 2015) og har markert seg med utstillingen, Mergentia, Works by KC Tidemand, Brooklyn, NY (2016). Tidemand har vært med i en rekke gruppeutstillinger på visningssteder i USA, som Oakland og San Diego, CA (2017/2018), Miami, FL (2017).

Tor Olav Wærnes (f. 1992) kommer rett ut fra Kunstakademiet i Oslo (BA, 2017). Wærnes har stilt ut i gruppeutstillinger som Urd og Liv Karin med venner, One Night Only, Kunstnernes Hus i Oslo (2015) og BASKETBALL, VOLLEYBALL, TENNISBALL, GOLFBALL, Akademirommet, Oslo (2014).

LINK TO QB GALLERY

I am happy to announce I will be in a group show at Vivid space SF. Opening Thursday, February 15th at 6 PM - 9 PM. Ill be showing with artists Daniel Barron Corrlaes & Fukuko Harris.

The show will be open until March 16th!

Vivid Space is at:
2420 India St, San Diego, CA 92101-1211, United States


Come by and say hi!

I will be in a group show "ATM Cigarettes Flowers Lottery/God Bless Deli 2" at
Space Heater Gallery

Opening Friday, September 29, 2017 at 7 PM - 10 PM.

Space Heater gallery is at 1283 Bushwick Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11207

ATM Cigarettes Flowers Lottery / God Bless Deli 2 takes place simultaneously at two Brooklyn galleries: Wayfarers Gallery (1109 Dekalb ave) and Space Heater Gallery (1283 Bushwick ave). An interactive scavenger hunt will take place on opening night, leading visitors through bodegas on a search for artwork, as they walk from one gallery to the other.

Works by:
Alanoud Ahmed
Eli Barak
Anna Breininger
Carlo Cittadini
Leah Dixon
Ron Erlih
Ilana Harris-Babou
Jonathan Hirschfeld
Alison Kuo
Annesta Le
Alicia Link
Jovanni Luna
Cela Luz
Luis Martin
Jennifer McDermott
Dain Mergenthaler
Nicole Mouriño
Amalia Mourad
Mozan
Emily Oliveira
Hiroki Otsuka
Sophie Parker
Ariana Prado
Mindy Shrago
KC Tidemand
Dareece Walker
Darryl Westly

Curated by Yael Azoulay, Sam Robinson, and Ali Shrago-Spechler

ATM Cigarettes Flowers Lottery / God Bless Deli 2 explores the dynamic of the bodega aesthetically and theoretically. Bodegas feed addiction and desire, providing sustenance in the form of Philly Cheesesteaks, honey buns, lottery tickets, pantyhose, condoms, and ramen. Their accessibility and uniformity allows for consistency and shelter and camaraderie- 24 hours a day. Each bodega takes on the unique form and identity of its owners, employees, customers, and surrounding neighborhoods, resulting in a bodega is as rich and culturally diverse as it's visitors. In contrast with large, sterile supermarkets that supply us with necessities, the bodega- often intimate and quaint- houses many of our guilty pleasures and nostalgic inclinations. The artists involved take a variety of approaches to the theme; some consider the formal and tactile relationships with the bodega itself, while others look at the changing socio-economic landscapes of New York City, and the shift that gentrification implies for locally-owned bodegas.

Existential Extensions at QB Gallery 07.02 — 01.03.2019

“A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo.”

-Deleuze og Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus

KC Tidemands arbeid er inspirert av filosofien til Gilles Deleuze og Felix Guattari, spesifikt polariteten mellom reduktive og rhizomatiske systemer. Et reduktivt system er preget av hierarkiske nettverk og er en mer tradisjonell modell, som for eksempel et familietre. På den andre siden har man rhizomatiske systemer, definert som røtter eller forbindelser som kan vokse fra hvilket som helst punkt. En “Rhizome,” eller rotstokk, er et desentralisert nettverk som konstant skaper nye tilkoblinger, lik internettets uendelighet. Ved å bruke disse to motstridende tankestrukturene som utgangspunkt søker Tidemand å bryte ned barrieren mellom orden og kaos, perfeksjonisme og feilaktighet, det biologiske og mekaniske – på leting etter et syntetisk midtpunkt beveger kunsten seg fra statiske nettverk til lekende konstruksjoner.

I serien Techscapes speiles menneskets ønske om å overvinne naturen. Kontrollen utspiller seg fra stramme linjer og arkitektoniske former med sporadiske kollapser i et kartografisk nettverk. Motivet i disse verkene er rekonstruert utallige ganger, og de uendelige kopiene viser til både det perfekte og defekte. I serien Skelascapes er menneskekroppen mer enn et symbol for døden, det er også et symbol for en deaktivert maskin. «Momento Mori», vissheten om døden, har i kunsthistorien ofte vært et symbol på livets gang. Tidemand har videreutviklet denne tankegangen, og bruker skjelettet som et symbol på kroppen som en maskin, en komplisert og fabelaktig maskin full av defekter. Tykke lag med oljemaling former seg rundt skjelettet, og gir en visuell fornemmelse om at skjelettet er et arkeologisk funn.

Existential Extensions tar oss med inn i skjæringspunktet mellom det menneskelige og det mekaniske. KC Tidemand har i hele sin karriere arbeidet med menneskets dragning mot kontroll i en kaotisk verden, for så å gi etter til kaoset. Med arbeidsintensive verk visualiserer Tidemand det innebodene paradokset i vårt forsøk på å oppnå en organisert virkelighet, og menneskets håp om at teknologi kan hjelpe oss å skape det ufeilbarlige. Et håp som alltid faller igjennom, nettopp fordi teknologiens røtter er i mennesket.

KC Tidemand (f. 1988, Oslo) er utdannet ved School of Visual Arts i NYC (MA 2015) og Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NYC (BA 2011). Existential Extensionser Tidemands første soloutstilling i Norge. Tidligere utstillinger i USA inkluderer Space Heater Gallery, Re;art show, The Rabbithole, SVA Chelsea og Tang Museum i Saratoga Springs. Hun har også stilt ut ved Satellite Art Show i Miami, Vivid Space i San Diego, Gallery 14 Mapel at Morris Arts og Falcon Power Gallery i New Jersey. Tidemand er grunnlegger av Smooth Muscle Collective. Hun bor og jobber i New York.

Anmeldelse: Til tross for tung tematikk, fenger Tidemand de mest klønete publikummerne av oss (Subjekt, februar 2019)

LINK TO QB GALLERY

ARTiculeACTION special issue

Check out this interview with me about my art practice

Exhibition: Formless Threads / Stratified Dimensions

Venue: Falcon Power West

Address: 1414 Grand St, Gr Fl, Hoboken, NJ 07030

Opening Reception: Tuesday, June 28, 2016 5:00 – 9:00 pm

Open every Thursday 5:00 – 9:00 pm through September


Falcon Power presents Formless Threads / Stratified Dimensions, a curated exhibition documenting the uneasy balance between chaos and order. Complex growth is entwined with precarious futures and timeless dimensions in paintings by Tim Daly and Roy Kinzer, and a site-specific installation by KC Tidemand.

The exhibition runs from June 28 – September 10, 2016 (open Tuesday evenings and by appointment), and presents a study into the nature of urban rhythms, complexities, architectural structure and unreal dimensions. The result is art that resonates with personal meaning and historic perspective.

Curated by Roy Kinzer, Formless Threads / Stratified Dimensions offers an opportunity to view each artist’s unique insight and practice.

This exhibition is supported by 1414 Grand Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030


FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Falcon Power West

201.736.3205 | pressoffice@falconpowerart.com

I am happy to announce my first solo show in NYC on June 10th!

Emergence: New Works by KC Tidemand
Curated by Jung Hee Mun
Rabbit Hole Gallery - 33 Washington Street, Dumbo Brooklyn, NYC

Emergence: New Works by KC Tidemand is an exhibition referencing the modern limbo we face in the technological tundra. It is composed solely of two-dimensional works center around the traditional subject of the landscape. Flourishing future cities and machinery are depicted within desolate environments. With the artist's background in installation, these flat landscapes verge on the three-dimensional by virtue of how they are installed in the space. The show consists of two photographic pieces, two oil paintings, a large drawing on paper, a hand-etched Plexi piece, and a drawn textile with metal detailing. Although they vary in material and process, they all share a visual language and a barren, yet abundant nature.

Meticulously made and prepared, these pieces serve as much as a timeline as a depiction of space. The tradition of mapping is a central theme throughout the exhibition, with the change from hand drawn maps to computerized GPS systems being opposing influences in the artworks. Each piece has its own schema with data given, as well as withheld, creating a dual characteristic of absences and abundance of information speckled through the gallery space. The viewer is left to fill out the blanks and imagine what should be presented. Playing with our imaginations and sentiments towards a dystopian future Tidemand’s work mirrors the twenty-first-century status: a space between automation and manual labor, reconciling the gap through her laborious and often monotonous processes. Her art disrupts the flow found in the industrial and mechanical by her distinct and persistent use of the human hand. This, in turn, produces a dichotomy in the work, between the soft and hard, blurred and sharp. Tidemand shows how repetitive yet unique mark making creates a universe onto itself, a series of information all beautifully rendered in an ordered mess. Emergence refers both to our deepest fear and highest hopes for the growing interchangeability between the individual and the technological landscape surrounding them.

-

KC Tidemand (b.1988) is an artist and educator, originally from Norway. She received her Bachelor's degree in Studio Art and Philosophy from Skidmore College and her Masters in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in NYC in 2015. Tidemand’s artwork deals with the notion of production and expansion, drawing influence from the polarity between reductive and emergent systems; where the former is characterized by its hierarchical networks while the latter is a decentralized web of connectivity. Using these two different systems as a tableau for the work, she plays with the limits of their visual properties and through this, explores how they affect our behavior, through liberation or restriction. Tidemand is a founding member of Art Theory Project; an art collective focused on bringing a contemporary art dialogue to the local communities and schools in NYC. She has shown internationally, including several galleries in Norway and the United States. She is currently living and working in New York City.

Jung Hee Mun (b.1983)  is an artist, educator and independent curator based in New York City.  Mun earned her Master’s degree in Fine Arts with a focus in an interdisciplinary practice from School of Visual Arts in NYC and Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in printmaking from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Mun’s recent work includes interactive projection, participatory performance, video, and photography. Mun explores issues of identity, violence, information infrastructure and sociopolitical ideologies in forms of fictions and dreams triggered by her identity as a Korean-American. Mun served as a cultural ambassador for Department for Culture & Creative Development of the city of San Antonio, Texas. She is a founding member of Art Theory Project, an art collective focused on connecting local communities with local artists by organizing art classes, exhibitions, and lectures. Mun’s works are in a collection of the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is currently living and working in NYC. 

KCTidemand.com
JungHeeMun.com

Bedford and Bowery write-up about the group show I am in "Dream catching" at 157 Club in BK

A rather beautifully written piece about my emergence installation at El Museo at SVA.

Emerging world of wonder and desolation in equal parts

written by Seph Rodney

On first seeing the stark simplicity of KC Tidemand’s “Emergence” (2015) at elmuseo@SVA — a collaboration between the SVA MFA Fine Art Program and El Museo Del Barrio — the feeling that came over me was simultaneous wonder and desolation.

Tidemand has assembled a colony of miniature metropolises by shaping small pieces of wood, painting them white, and affixing them to the gallery walls with glue. The wood bits have been whittled into very small blocks, rectangles, cylinders, and thin planes of varying height and width — all huddled together so that what seem like office towers abut residential buildings that are adjacent to grain silos and power substations. They’re arranged in discrete clusters that look like cities of a fantastical future in which gravity has been circumvented, biological material has been scrubbed from public space, and all signs of human habitation have been sequestered within austere white structures.

The cities are not still — they migrate, crawling across the gallery walls, winnowing to only a handful of buildings in some places, clustering in corners before continuing onto the ceiling. The movement seems haphazard but relentless. It’s as if Tidemand translated the coolly clinical malevolence of 2001’s HAL 9000 into an architectural scheme that anticipates the colonization of another planet. For all its silent austerity, “Emergence” insinuates a devastating backstory that we know is plausible: We poisoned our own planet, rendered it uninhabitable, and then moved on to the next world.

The arrangement of small objects into configurations that suggest cities is a strategy that has been used by other artists. Cordy Ryman has made reminiscent pieces, but his work, on the whole, seems much more concerned with the materiality of his objects and the tension between organization by color and by architectural form. Elias Sime has used recycled electronic materials to create vast installations that resemble the view of an urban landscape from thousands of feet above ground; however, his work is more focused on examining our relationship to technological progress and the waste we generate.

Tidemand, on the other hand, lashes together two massive and massively discordant themes: our arrogance in believing we can set the terms of our own fate, and our ultimate vulnerability. I knew I could easily knock all the little structures off the wall with a sweep of my hand. In a similar way, every so often a tsunami is generated by the universe’s whim, wiping away entire cities in a stroke, as if they were mere matchsticks in a game a child had grown tired of playing.

I found this work deeply poignant because it begins with awe of the sanitized world that we may likely build in the future, and it ends with the guarantee of nothing. There’s an empty white hopelessness as the coda to this story — a planet we are denuding of plant and animal life in order to build the cities and supporting industries that seem emblematic of human progress. “Emergence” makes one feel that the effort of constructing civilization is completely futile.

After I left the gallery, I walked out into the world and gazed at New York’s tall and imposing buildings, and the ones now being constructed. They appeared less impressive to me. In fact, they seemed temporary and ephemeral, as if the claim they made was only smoke and mirrors.

elmuseo@SVA continues at School of Visual Arts Gallery (601 West 26th Street, 15th floor, Chelsea, Manhattan) continues through February 20.

artfcity.com

Check out this little write up about the group show ElMuseo@SVA that I am a part of.

Upcoming show January 16 2016!

elmuseo@SVA represents a coming together of two New York institutions: El Museo del Barrio and the School of Visual Arts. Founded by artist Raphael Montanez Ortiz and local activists, parents and teachers in East Harlem, El Museo del Barrio’s original mission was to support the art and culture of Puerto Rico. By the early 1970s that mission expanded to include all of Latin America and Latino communities in the Unites States. The work on view in the exhibition explores the aesthetic and thematic affinities of these different but like-minded communities. In the words of curator Aranda-Alvarado: “At various stages of their careers, the artists in the show act as contemporary anthropologists gathering objects or inspiration from the urban landscape, engaging with issues around migration and the body, exploring space and architecture, tradition and craft.”

On view in the SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor, with an opening reception on Thursday, January 21 from 6-8pm.

There will be a panel discussion in the gallery with curator Rocio Aranda-Avarado and artists Manuel Acevedo, K.C. Tidemand, Denise Treizman and Alejandro Guzman on Tuesday, February 16 from 6-7:30pm.

El Museo del Barrio
SVA events info
SVA MFA event info

I will be in the BYO show at the Living Gallery in Brooklyn. Come by November 30 from 6-9pm

1094 broadway, BK, NY 112221

Lorimoto is pleased to present our first ever large scale holiday salon show

"Open Call" is an inclusive show of over 300 small works by over 300 artists.

Open Saturday & Sunday 1-6pm through December 20th

16-23 Hancock St. Ridgewood, NY 11385


http://lorimoto.com/615627/current-show/

Pop up show at Cloying Parlor, 309 Jefferson st, Brooklyn, NYC
December 6-7 2014

Juried show showing my work from 21. juni - 13. juli 2014 at Ramfjord Gallery in Oslo, Norway

Link to show website



or

Four of my art works are in a group show called "Social Senses" in NYC.

"School of Visual Arts presents “Social Senses,” an exhibition of photography, sculpture and drawings by current students and recent alumni featuring works that critique contemporary culture. Curated by Richard Brooks, assistant director of SVA Galleries, the exhibition will be on view Tuesday, August 12, through Saturday, September 13, at the SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 East 23rd Street, New York City."

Check it out!

Social Senses exhibition website

A little mention about the exhibition in the local paper

Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad



or

I am in a group show at Festiviteten Galleri, at Eidsvol Vœrk, Norway. It will be running until the 15th of December 2013, so please visit, its only 45 minutes from Oslo ;)

Festiviteten



or

I am moving to NYC to start my two year Masters in Fine Arts at SVA.
See you there!

I have my first online exhibition at Generation C magazine.
"Technological Disorder/ Natural order"

Generation C Check it out here:|

I am participating in Oslo Open 2013, April 20 until April 21.

here is the website for more info.

osloopen.no/ Oslo Open|